The 10 Most Prophetic Sci-Fi Movies Ever

When Arthur C. Clarke died, science fiction — hell, science in general — lost one of its greatest, most forward-looking masters. In his honor, PM's resident geek and sci-fi buff analyzes the most eerily predictive, prescient films of the future. They're not necessarily the best movies—just the ones that got the science right, or will sometime soon.

10. 2001: A Space Odyssey

10. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Released: 1968 | Set in the year: 2001

Clarke's biggest contribution to science—the concept of placing satellites in geosynchronous orbit—makes the briefest of cameos in 2001. Despite its place in cinematic history, this movie is a particularly easy target. Once our own timeline slipped past the year 2001, it became obvious that, as measured and bleak as the film's technology seemed at the time, it was a work of strange optimism. Artificial intelligence is still far too dumb to achieve psychosis and getting to the moon—much less Jupiter—seems like as much of a challenge now as it was when Apollo 11 landed there, a year after the movie was released. Still, Clarke and Stanley Kubrick nailed the feel of space travel, and its eventual commercialization, in a way that still resonates today. And HAL 9000's calculated mutiny is plausible enough to ring in any NASA administrator's head, when the time comes—and it will—to consider the role of truly autonomous systems in manned missions.

HITS

Space Tourism: The image is as indelible as those cavemen worshipping at the foot of the monolith: an elegant but strangely familiar-looking craft gliding through space. This was not a muscular rocket ship, but a space plane bearing Pan American's logo, like a jetliner that simply flew higher than the rest. (Clarke and Kubrick's business acumen was far less predictive. Pan Am went under in 1991 and Virgin Airways—much less Virgin Galactic—hadn't yet formulated as an idea in 19-year-old Richard Branson's brain in 1969). The inside of the craft, from the rows of empty seats to the weightless flight attendants, reinforced the feeling of uneventful, commercial air travel. In the year 2008, space tourism is far from casual, but 2001's prediction that one day flying to an orbital space station would require zero training or preparation—and the corresponding outlook Clarke offered PM last year—is gradually coming true.

MISSES

Artificial Intelligence: HAL 9000 may be too smart for his own good. He's also too smart, period. In the 60's many AI researchers were extremely optimistic, predicting full machine sentience by the end of the millennium. And HAL's purpose is valid—since much of the crew of Discovery One is in cryogenic sleep during the long trip to Jupiter, an AI could be instrumental to keeping the ship in working order. But in the 40 years since the movie's release, artificial intelligence has been a major disappointment. And any time an autonomous system has the power to kill, such as an armed unmanned vehicle, roboticists are careful to require an authorized human operator to actually pull the trigger, or, in HAL's case, turn off the crew's life support.

Manned Space Exploration: The workings of the various spacecraft in 2001 are ambiguous, but until more efficient propulsion systems can be developed, none of the spaceward jaunts in the film are possible. And if getting to Mars seems like the biggest challenge of the century, imagine planning a trip to Jupiter.

UNDECIDED

Videophones: We have the technology to turn almost every phone on the planet into a full-fledged videophone. But, as it turns out, most people don't want to put on pants to answer the phone. A two-way video feed means devoting your full attention to the conversation, and sacrificing nearly any kind of multitasking, including simply walking down the street. It's possible, though, that video will become a standard option for existing phones, allowing for occasional, but highly optional face-to-face conversations. In other words, users might agree to opt into video, as opposed to constantly opting out. Speculation aside, videophones aren't in high demand now, and probably never will be.

9. Short Circuit

9. Short Circuit

Released: 1986 | Set in the year: Unspecified (but probably 1986)

Of all the robot movies in the history of science fiction, from classics like Metropolis and The Terminator to more recent, questionable attempts, like Artificial Intelligence: AI, why pick this one? Short Circuit is, by no stretch of the imagination, a fine film. And its protagonist, Johnny Five, isn't helping the case of self-aware robots—it would be a lot more satisfying to blow this mugging, extroverted thing to pieces than to kill an entire platoon of stoic Terminators. But Short Circuit got one thing right, which was the burgeoning field of armed ground robot development. And while Steve Guttenberg's lovable roboticist would prefer his creations engage in peaceful cohabitation with their human masters, his employer, the Nova Corporation, is pushing the machines on the United States military. The plot is too idiotic to recap, and the notion that the robots' primary purpose is to carry nukes behind enemy lines is deliriously weird, but the role of the defense industry in pushing the limits of ground robots is clear. DARPA's Grand and Urban Challenges might seem like the first steps toward robot cars, but it's the Department of Defense that's throwing the competition, and collecting all of the data from the various teams. Even iRobot, makers of the Roomba, relies on military contracts to stay profitable.

HITS

Autonomous Military Ground Robots: Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are nowhere near as advanced as the five SAINT (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport) robots in Short Circuit, but their basic construction holds up surprisingly well. They move around on tracked wheels, like the majority of current UGVs, and have sensor-packed heads that look a lot like the autonomous navigation systems planned for the Army's MULE robot. It's unclear why they have arms, much less the incredibly dextrous hands that Johnny Five uses to read books, dance with ladies, etc. Presumably they need some way to carry and detonate nuclear weapons, but it's best not to stare too long into the abyss that is Short Circuit's internal logic, such as it is. It's also unclear just how autonomous the SAINTs are, since Five's sentience is awakened by a lightning bolt. But if the premise is that the military will develop a ground robot that can move autonomously throughout the battlefield and fire at targets with integrated weaponry, then Short Circuit is the unlikely harbinger of the robot-dependent wars to come.

MISSES

Lasers: Why do the SAINTs have lasers, instead of perfectly lethal rockets or machine guns? This is a common problem when Hollywood fumbles with sci-fi. Instead of running with one or two high-tech concepts, everything becomes fair game. So Blade Runner gets flying cars, the Terminator movies get beam weapons, and Johnny Five is packing a scientific breakthrough that's much more impressive than he is.

UNDECIDED

Artificial Intelligence: Is it worth getting into how simplistic Five's artificial intelligence is? If nothing else, I'd like to know what sort of hard drive he comes with. Those books he reads at breakneck speed have to go through instantaneous optical character recognition and get stored somewhere. Or am I being petty?